To The Next Realm
by The Threat
Summary: Daleks, Cylons, Peacekeepers, Storm Troopers, Kromaggs, and many other villains. What if they decided to join forces? The first in a series of stories, that will have characters go from the world of one work of fiction into another.
1. Chapter 1

I could remember how the day started. I was on the school bus, along with all my classmates, on our way to the museum. At risk of sounding like a cliche, it was a day like any other. On our way there, people talked about their internet friends (whom they didn't know), their favorite sports (which they never played), bashed the books on our reading list (which they never read),... like I said, a day like any other. But all that changed, when suddenly something flew above us. Many of us (myself excluded) shouted "airplane", but though it flew, it didn't look like any airplane I knew. Its wings were beneath the vessel, and crooked in such a way that flying should technically be impossible. So how could it fly at all? But those thoughts had to be put away, as the flying machine shot something from its nose. It looked like a laser-beam, but instead it was... I had no idea at the time what it was. It somehow stopped in mid-air, and became a huge red circle, shining brightly in front of the bus. I remembered hearing the driver curse as he tried to stop himself from hitting the red circle, but he failed. But instead of hitting anything, the bus seemed to have driven inside something. As everyone started screaming as much as their throats could allow them, the bus had seemingly driven itself into some kind of other dimension, which somehow caused the bus to spin around like crazy, causing us to be tossed about everywhere. Last thing I remember from that incident was a sharp pain on head. Next thing I knew, I was some place else.

At first, it was all a blur. Still, I could make out at least two people in the room with me. One looked like a blond woman in a red dress, the other looked like a man in a white suit and helmet. I heard them talking, but I couldn't make out anything. I could still feel pain in my head, so I assumed that the bump was still there. Though my vision was still blurry, I could tell those two people in the room rushed to me, sounding excited.

"... first to wake up."

"Thi... ould function as a Sto... ooper?"

"That's not my... ake."

I could almost literally catch only half of their conversation. I shut my eyes, tried to shake my head awake, but all it did was hurt it even more.

"Shh..." I heard that woman say.

"Don't... yourself." she said.

I could see her lean very close to me, as my vision was getting better. She seemed friendly, nice and... beautiful. All even more so as she was caressing my forehead with her one finger. I wanted to touch her back... and that's when I realized I couldn't move. I tried pulling my hand up, but something kept it down. I looked down. There was a metal bolt that kept it restrained to... whatever I was restrained to. I felt like I was lying down on something, but I could look at the woman directly, as if I was standing up.

"That was an emotional reaction." the white-suited man said, "Maybe he's better off being a Cy..."

"Quiet." the woman said, "I told you, that's not our decision."

While they were arguing, I looked around me. The room itself was black, with only one door. And besides me, there were several others restrained in the room. All of them were people who were on the bus with me.

"Watch him." the woman said, upon which the white-suited man raised his gun at me.

The woman got behind the thing I was restrained to. What she did exactly, I could merely guess. Whatever she did, it released the bolts on me, and I could move again. But as I tried to step forward, I fell down.

"Easy." the woman helped me up again, "You've been out for hours. Give your body some time to adjust."

"Don't mother him too much!" the man roared.

"If he exerts himself too much, he won't be any use to you or anyone." the woman reasoned with him.

That seemed to shut him up. So the woman helped me stand on my own two feet, and escorted me out of the room.

Outside, things didn't make any more sense than before. Guarding the door was one hulk of a man. His skin was green, his hair was long and white, he wore a mask with just two holes for his eyes, and a black leather suit, and he carried around a green gun. Down the hall, there were more doors, likely leading to more rooms like the one I just left. Yet every guard looked different. One was wearing a metallic suit, and had a red light in its visor, which kept going from left to right. Another looked almost human, except a little more ape-like. The last guard I saw before we left that hallway, wore a gray armor, carried a staff for a weapon, and had this strange symbol tattooed on his forehead.

From this hallway, we entered a larger one. This one was more grayish in color, but seemed otherwise abandoned. Good, I thought to myself. I could use this to escape. I looked at the two escorting me. The woman was wearing high heels, so nobody would question it if she tripped. Hopefully the man would be so kind to help her up. Then again, he hadn't been so kind before, so that was quite a guess on my part. But I had to try something.

I heard a gun cock behind me: "Don't even think about it."

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at the man, surprised.

"You were just thinking about surprising us." he said, "That won't work. You seem to be a very good strategist, and I'd hate to blast your head off."

He could hear what I was thinking. So escaping their clutches wouldn't be as easy as I thought.

"Why would you want to escape anyway?" the woman started, "You are months away from graduating school. Am I right? And aren't you afraid of what lies in wait for you?"

I had no answer at the ready. Primarily because I wasn't sure where she was going with this. Was she implying that she was offering me something better? The fact that she had to kidnap me in the first place made me think otherwise.

"Just move where we te..." she stopped talking, just when she looked straight in front of her, as did the man. Both looked in the same direction, but when I looked, I didn't see anything.

"You hold him, while I check it out." the man said to the woman, and as he started to run, the woman had wrapped an arm around my neck, and held me in such a tight grip I feared she was about to choke me. I tried using both of my hands to pull her arm away, but for someone of her size, she was very strong.

"Looks like I have to take you there the hard way." I could hear her smile as she spoke.


	2. Chapter 2

As I was being dragged away, I could hear several screams and shouts, like there was some kind of fight going on. In a way, that didn't surprise me. I had no idea how large this building was, but it was safe to assume that we (me and my classmates) weren't the only prisoners. How they could even think of starting one was a mystery to me, though. This woman in her red dress, as well as that man in white, they somehow knew what I was thinking. I wasn't even sure how to deal with this one woman. Still, I had to try something, and fast. I tried kicking her, but she punched me in stomach for trying. Since she had me in that grip, I couldn't bend over in agony, so instead I raised my legs so I could double over anyway. This was done instinctively, so she didn't see it coming, which surprised her so much, she fell down. As her grip on me loosened, I grabbed her by her dress and pulled her over my head. She fell in front of me, on her back, with a loud smack. With this, I turned to run. But somehow, I couldn't. I had set my left foot forward, but my right wouldn't follow, causing me to fall.

"You can't get rid of me that easily." the woman said.

I turned to lie on my back, and saw her reaching for my other leg. I dodged every one of her attempts, even tried stomping on her hand, but she was always faster than me. It took me a while to realize I was overlooking one other target, and that was her head. I tried to kick that, but that gave her the necessary opening to grab my right leg.

"Gotcha!" she said.

She had that look on her face, I couldn't place it at the time. It was the sort you'd expect a lion would have when it caught its prey. I didn't know what she was about to do. Kill me? Eat me? In that order? But that look was followed by a different type. It was this blank look of defeat. Did I do anything? And then, he head just dropped, and her grip on me loosened. It was like a machine that just shut down. I had no idea what was happening. As I was trying to piece together what just happened, somebody picked me up. It woke me from that trance I had found myself in. I looked at the one who picked me up.

"Don't worry, I'm on your side." he said.

I had barely registered what happened to that woman, I had looked at a man in a... crazy-looking outfit... too many things were happening at once, I barely had enough time to let everything sink in, so what he said barely got through to me.

"You know what this place is?" he asked me.

I still couldn't answer. I looked at him up and down. He wore one of those suits you wear at special occasions. A tuxedo, if I remember correctly. Other than that, he also wore a black top hat, a black cape, a white mask, and carried around what looked like a short blade. This blade was covered in something red, which was dripping down from it. Blood? I looked at the woman again. On her back, a clear cut was visible, and underneath her, a pool of blood had started to appear.

"It was necessary. Believe me." the tuxedo-man told me, as he put the blade back in its sheath, which looked like just a regular walking stick now.

"I've seen others that look like her before." he continued, "They can be..."

He didn't continue talking, as I had already placed my hands to my ears. Did he just say he saw others that looked like her? Nothing about the whole situation made any sense, and the fact that he kept rambling on like that didn't make it easier for me to fully process anything.

"Hey!" he smacked my head, "This isn't the right time to act like an idiot. Alright?"

I wouldn't deny that, but how was I supposed to react to all of this? I had been kidnapped, my kidnappers were all weird sort of people, one of them was about to... I had no idea what she wanted to do but it didn't seem like I was going to enjoy it, and that same woman was murdered in front of me, by a man in what looked like a super hero outfit. Before I could say anything at all, we both heard a noise somewhere behind us. Both of us turned to look. Several men seemed to have been tossed about. One of them wore what looked like a medieval outfit, except he carried something around that looked like a gun. Another man wore what looked like a ninja-outfit, that (for whatever reason) had the drawing of a foot stitched to its forehead. Additionally, when that man fell down, he started to convulse, while sparks were flying from its body. Was this another machine? As soon as I heard someone shout "exterminate", the tuxedo-man pulled my arm.

"We better get away from here. Can you run?"

Even if I couldn't, I didn't have much of a choice. I nodded, so he lead, and I followed.

We ran from one corridor into the next, but there didn't seem to be an end in sight. Nor did we make it very far, as around one other corner, we ran into... all sorts of strange men. Some were gray like clay, others were blue and had ghost-like faces drawn on their bodies,... and those were just the ones I could make out. But none of them seemed to be aware of us. They were all dealing with other people. The tuxedo-man didn't need to tell me to turn and run back. But once we turned a corner, he stopped me.

"Wait, we can't go back." he said, "They're fighting back there too. There has to be another way."

I couldn't think of something, but I did see something behind him. He saw me looking behind him, and turned to look. It was a door. Neither of us had any idea where it lead to, but it seemed the best option.

"It'll have to do."

He opened the door. But as soon as he did, I heard a mechanical whirring. The tuxedo-man stood erect and raised his hands.

There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a voice from beyond that door: "Are you prisoners too?"

I couldn't be sure, but that voice didn't sound natural. Almost electrical.

"Too?" the tuxedo-man replied, "You mean you're not a guard?"

That mechanical whirring came back: "If you were one of them, you would know the answer."

The tuxedo-man sighed of relief and entered the room. I didn't know him well enough, but I didn't have too many other options. So I trusted his judgment and entered the room after him.

Inside, there were several machines that I didn't recognize. I could merely assume they were computers. But that wasn't what caught the most attention. In the corner of the room was what looked like a man in a blue outfit. He was holding a tiny laptop, which was connected to the computers.

"Who are you?" the tuxedo-man asked.

"My creator calls me Rockman." he answered, while he was tapping some keys on his laptop.

His creator? What did he mean by that? I tried to ask, but the tuxedo-man beat me to it.

"Do you know what this building is?"

"It is not a building." Rockman answered, "It is a space station."

"We're in space?" the tuxedo-man asked.

"Yes. But the star-charts make no sense." Rockman explained further, "I don't recognize any of the systems that are in this computer."

"How does that help us?" the tuxedo-man wondered.

"None at all." was the answer, "In every meaning of the word."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that even if we somehow escape, we cannot return to our homes." he elaborated.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I haven't been able to find Earth again." he answered, "It seems like it never existed in this universe."

"This... universe?" the tuxedo-man sounded as alarmed as I felt.

Before Rockman could answer, something happened on his laptop. Whatever it was, it caused him to drop the laptop and stomp on it once it hit the ground.

"What did you just do?"

"They just infected my computer." he answered, "Now they can't use it against us."

"They can do that?"

"It's what I surmise they are doing." Rockman explained, "They are gathering people from every existing universe, reprogram, brainwash or even rebuild them, so they can amass an all-powerful army."

"Why would they do that?" the tuxedo-man asked.

"Unclear."

The tuxedo-man sighed: "Can you help us get out?"

"I might, but I need help from both of you."

The tuxedo-man looked at me. I merely shrugged. I had no idea how much help I could be.

"Alright. What do you want us to do?"

"For now," Rockman replied, "you follow me."


	3. Chapter 3

When we left the room, Rockman raised his left arm, which then... changed. It opened up at some places, pieces of metal popped out, his hand retracted,... until his arm had become a cannon.

"What are you?" the tuxedo-man asked.

"Explanations can wait." was the answer, as he started running in one direction, which we followed.

As we moved through the corridors, we encountered many of these... people again. However, sometimes they were small in number, and therefor easily subdued, or they were too busy fighting something else, so they barely noticed our being there. I kept wondering what it was that they were fighting. After all, something this big must have some kind of safety precautions to prevent anything of the sorts. If it were an uprising, Rockman would know about it too, may even have some friends backing him up. But all he had were me and the tuxedo-man. And for some reason, he wasn't sharing much with us either.

After what seemed like an endless run through a bombed obstacle course, we eventually arrived at a corner, where Rockman stopped. Carefully, he tried looking past that corner. Curious, I tried the same, but Rockman stopped me.

"Do not move, or they will know you're here."

He then turned to the tuxedo-man, while he made an adjustment on his arm-cannon: "I will take one, you keep the other busy."

This seemed to make as much sense to him as it did to me. But before we could ask an explanation, Rockman already turned around the corner and shot once. As quickly as I could, I looked at what he was shooting at. I saw double doors, which seemed to have been made of heavy materials, and was guarded by two mechanical men, each with one red eye that kept going left to right. In many ways, they reminded me of that armored man I saw earlier, except here it seemed like they weren't men in suits, they looked like robots. One of these robots, looked when Rockman fired his shot, but was hit before he could do anything. The shot itself seemed to freeze the robot solid. Rockman fired another shot, but the second robot dodged the attack. Soon enough, I saw something flying through the air, hitting the robot in its red eye. It started to move frantically, like a man in panic, until Rockman fired some of his regular bullets, destroying the robot.

"Nice throw, em..." Rockman didn't know who to compliment.

"Tuxedo Kamen." the tuxedo-man answered, as he walked to the robot's remains, to collect his blade.

"Alright." Rockman said, "We have very little time before they realize what is happening."

"What is behind this door?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.

"I have no idea." Rockman answered, "But whatever it is, there has to be some reason why it is always guarded by machines, never by anyone that is even partially organic."

He made that adjustment to his cannon again. This time, when he fired, a red beam came out, to a point that it looked like he was holding a sword. With that sword, he first cut the frozen robot in half, upon which he cut a hole through the double doors.

"Who's there?" a voice called from beyond the doors.

"A girl?" Tuxedo Kamen was surprised.

"Do not worry." Rockman told her, "We're here to..."

A gasp sounded through: "What are you?"

I could only assume that the notion of an android was new to her, so she wouldn't recognize Rockman for what he was just by the sound of his voice.

"I am made to help humanity." Rockman answered, "And we are helping you to escape."

"Is this a trick?"

"We hope not." Tuxedo Kamen answered, "What's happening here is a surprise to us too. But there may never be another chance for us to escape."

This seemed to have convinced her to want to come out, as I heard footsteps coming closer to the hole. I saw her one leg first, that was wearing what looked like a freshly made boot (meaning that it wasn't made in a factory), followed by her head, that looked like it hasn't been washed in years, and the rest of her body. Although she was covered in mud, it couldn't hide her pale skin, deep red lips and raven black hair. I couldn't help noticing that, despite the dirt and unclean clothes, she looked... no, especially covered in dirt, she looked very pretty. I could hear Tuxedo Kamen smack his own face then.

"I'm married."

"Now I see what effect she has on organic life-forms." Rockman said.

"Or... ganic?" she didn't seem to understand much of what Rockman was saying.

"I can explain, but there is no time for that." he answered, "This space station can fall apart at any moment. Besides us, there are several more kept prisoner here. We can free them, but there is only one human that can take us out of here. Can you help us?"

She needed a second to think about it, after which she searched her own body, but shrugged as she found nothing: "If I had my dagger, I could fight too."

I heard a sword leaving its sheath, and saw Tuxedo Kamen giving his blade to her.

"Don't worry, I know several ways to fight without it."

Smiling, she took the sword in her hands: "You'll be richly rewarded when I return to my kingdom."

"I'm already king of my own realm." Tuxedo Kamen answered, "You can't make me any more rich than I already am, miss..."

"It's Queen." she said, "Snow White."

So my companions were named Tuxedo Kamen, Rockman, and Snow White? What happened to names like Joe, Chris and Mel?


	4. Chapter 4

The four of us tried to make our way through the guards that came up to us. Rockman would shoot, freeze, punch, slice, and... pretty much do anything that was available to that arm of his. Tuxedo Kamen would use some martial arts techniques (the likes of which I had never seen before) to fend off the attackers, while Snow White would attack stab her sword into her opponents' belly, which completely disabled them. As Rockman stated before, they would send only mechanical ones, so to prevent organics of becoming... overcome (for a lack of better terms) by Snow White. And how could they not be? Just mere sight of her was enough to throw me off. And even looking at the way she moved and dealt with the robots attacking us... there was a certain majesty to it that I couldn't ignore. I'd even go as far as to say that the only reason Rockman could was because he was an android himself. And the only reason Tuxedo Kamen could was because he was married.

"Why aren't you doing anything?" I heard Snow White ask me.

That question threw me off. What could I possibly answer? I had no martial arts training, I had no weapon at hand, and the robots that fought us either carried no weapons, or the ones they did carry were destroyed so they couldn't be used against us anymore. So there was literally nothing I could do. I feared I was disappointing her, making it even harder for me to even come up with an answer.

"Do you talk at all?" she suddenly asked.

Before I could answer, a beam of light shot between us. We both turned to look into the direction it came from, where we saw Rockman shooting the (remarkably) tiny robot that shot at us, blowing it up.

"Rockman, we can't keep trying to walk through these people." Tuxedo Kamen said.

"I know, but we cannot use the air-vents either."

"There are air-vents?" this was new to him.

"Yes." Rockman explained, "But even if we use those, we will meet with just as much resistance in there."

"How?"

"Because they can hear your thoughts."

This wasn't news to me, as I had noticed that woman in red and that man in white uniform seemed to hear my thoughts. But the other two, by the looks on their faces, hadn't noticed.

"They can?" Snow White didn't want to believe it.

"There are many people in this station that can communicate their exact thoughts to others of their kind, making it easier for them to coordinate their attacks. This is how they took over my world. But that is all they can do, send their own thoughts to their own people. But in here, there is a machine that amplifies that ability."

"What do those words mean?" Snow White asked.

"He's saying there's something in this station that allows them to hear our thoughts." Tuxedo Kamen answered.

"Exactly." Rockman confirmed, "So even if we use air-vents, they will know where we are."

That would explain why he has been so secretive so far. If he told us everything, we would know his plan, and that plan would be caught by those who were reading our thoughts.

"So all we have to do is destroy that machine, and they can't do a thing anymore." Tuxedo Kamen suggested.

"If only it was that simple." Rockman shook his head, "The amplifier is heavily guarded. Right now, probably even more so."

"Wait, maybe we don't have to." Snow White said.  
We all looked at her, waiting to hear what she meant: "I want to try something."

Next thing we knew, she just shut her eyes, rubbed her temples, then lowered her hands and... just stood there for moment. I had no idea what she was doing, nor any idea if it was working. I could hear Rockman and Tuxedo Kamen ask her, but she wouldn't say anything. When I looked closer, I could see her eyes moving rapidly behind her eye-lids, and her face started twitching, as if in distress. Soon enough, her entire body seemed to numb, and she fell down. Being the closest to her, I was able to catch her just in time. But as soon as I heard mechanical footsteps approaching, I silently realized it wouldn't have mattered.

"We're one fighter short now." Rockman said, as he adjusted his cannon-arm, "This may become dif..."

He got interrupted by the sound of shooting lasers. The weird thing was, we heard the lasers, but we didn't see any. What we did see was that the backs of those robots were lit up, after which they fell down, revealing the ones who fired.

"Is that the queen?" one of them asked. He was wearing a gray suit, carried a staff, which was still smoking at its one end (which I had to assume was where one of the shots came from), and had a tattoo on his forehead. A bit like one of the guards I saw earlier, except this one's tattoo wasn't just a drawing, it was something made of gold, that somehow stuck to his forehead.

"Why are you asking that?" Rockman questioned.

"Reward or no reward, we go where she goes." the other man spoke. This one wore a purple suit, with black boots (which had red X's on them) and black and white helmet, which resembled a skull.

"Why do you want to protect her?" Rockman inquired further.

"Because she's the life." the... skullman answered, "She's..."

He couldn't finish his own sentence, as something was giving him and his companion a headache. While they were trying to fight their pain, Snow White had started to shake, as if she was suffering from epilepsy. Almost as soon as that happened, it ended, and the pain in those men's heads stopped too.

"You want to help the prisoners escape?" the gray man said, "We can help you."

Was this Snow White's doing? Was she somehow making contact with the mind-reading machine?

"Can we trust them?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.

"If Snow White has done what I think she has done, I believe so."

"What do you think she's done?"

"I can answer that, but I do not think we have enough time." Rockman then turned to the other two, "Take us to the prisoners. Or better yet, take us to the one called Quinn Mallory."

"It will be done." the gray man answered, and he escorted us.


	5. Chapter 5

Somehow, things had gotten easier. Everywhere we went, we didn't encounter anyone trying to stop us. And yet, somehow, this uprising that has allowed us to escape in the first place, didn't end. We encountered at least one group, where neither the organics or the mechanics paid attention to us, as they were still fighting... the enemy.

"What is happening?" Rockman asked our two aids.

"Reavers." the gray man answered, "We found them in the Alliance world."

"What are they?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.

"We are unsure." was the answer, "Upon entering their world, they boarded us immediately, and started pillaging our vessel, raping our men, wrecking many of our systems..."

They weren't even surprised a ship appeared out of nowhere?

"We only just managed to return to the base, hoping we could subdue them here."

"That was a mistake." the skullman stated.

"I know that now." the gray man said.

"This entire base is a mistake!" Tuxedo Kamen exclaimed, "Why do you abduct people? Take them away from their worlds?"

"Now is not the time to fight over that." Rockman stopped him, "Where do we find Quinn Mallory?"

"This way." the gray man pointed.

Rockman stepped to the door that was appointed to him, which opened automatically. And beyond that door, we finally saw what these aforementioned Reavers looked like. They had scars everywhere, metal was piercing many parts of their bodies, they smelled like dead people, but then I realized that was because they were wearing dead people as suits. As soon as the door opened, some of them turned to look at us. Most of them either snarled, or growled, but all of them had that same look on their faces. There was no way to describe it. It wasn't like a wild animals, because even those tend to look friendlier than that. It was like violence was all they lived for. Of course Rockman and the other two started shooting at them, but there were too many of them out there. Meanwhile, Tuxedo Kamen scanned the area, and spotted a different door.

"This way!" he shouted.

Upon hearing him shout that, we all followed him through that door. On the other side, the skullman pressed a button that shut the door behind us, and apparently locked it, because these Reavers didn't get through.

I took one quick look around where we ended up. It looked like a hangar bay, where all sorts of ships were parked. I even recognized one of the ships as the one that abducted me. Either that, or it was the same model. Oddly, none of the ships were leaving. You'd think that among the many people on this base, some would try to get away, but none of them did. What could possibly be so important here that they would risk dying for it?

"Is there another way?" Rockman asked.

The gray man pointed to a door in the distance. It was at the far end of the bay.

"Let's go, then." Tuxedo Kamen said.

"Hold it right there." the skullman stopped him, "Why do you want to safe this Mallory so badly?"

"Because your records say that every prisoner is scheduled for something. Mind-probing, upgrading, turning, among others. He is the only one scheduled for questioning, and it has been that way for months. From that I deduce he knows something that we do not."

"That's because he's the only human who discovered how to slide into other worlds." the skullman explained, "A human who could do that, it impressed the Kromaggs, so they kept him for questioning, hoping they could find his world."

Funny, I thought to myself. You would think that by now he'd have told them where his world is already.

"I see." Rockman said, "Then he is just as much a priority as the other prisoners."

"What are you up to now, Rockman?" Tuxedo Kamen asked him.

"You take these two and free as many prisoners as you can." he replied, "We will stay here and see if we can use one of these ships."

He then turned to the other two men: "Are all these ships capable of inter-dimensional traveling?"

"Only the mother-ships are." the gray man answered, "Not the smaller vessels."

"It is the mother-ships we will need if there are many prisoners to transport." he replied, "Go now."

The three of them nodded, and they left, while Rockman had started scanning the area for a suitable ship. He didn't tell me to do anything, but then, I was already carrying Snow White. And besides, I haven't been much help in battle, so the best I could do was help him start up a ship when necessary. One thought crossed my mind, though. What if these Reavers manage to find the mind-reading machine? After all, they seemed to be the only ones immune to Snow White's influence. And if others, besides the gray man and the skullman, decided to help us, and we manage to leave this world, wouldn't they turn against us?

"Do not worry yourself." I heard a voice say.

I shifted my head, looking for the source of that voice. But besides Rockman and me, there was nobody else.

"What are you doing?" Rockman asked.

I was about to answer his question, when that voice spoke again: "He's a machine, he would not understand."

"Come on, we have to hurry." he started running, and I followed.


	6. Chapter 6

Rockman found what looked like a pyramid-shaped ship. I remember thinking to myself how weird that looked. After all, pyramids were usually either just geometric objects, or buildings, but here they were ships. Under neath the ship was what looked like a circle on the floor, along with a pole, similar to a phone-pole. But if it was a phone, there would be a horn, or a microphone of some kind, this thing had only a button-display, and they were marked with ancient Egyptian symbols.

"This looks like our best option." Rockman said, "Stand inside that circle."

Still carrying Snow White, I hurried into that circle, while Rockman broke the display, did something to the wiring behind it, and as soon as there was a shock, he hurried to get inside the circle too. A good thing he did too, because mere seconds before he even stepped inside, the circle itself seemed to open. A mere second after he was in the circle, rings rose up from underneath the floor, until they had completely engulfed us. A light shone from the circles, but not enough to blind us. Once the lights were out, the rings retreated back to the floor. And when it did... we were somewhere else?

Rockman must have noticed the puzzled look on my face, for he explained: "I just transported us inside the ship, if that is what confuses you."

Rings that teleport you into ships? Why not. After everything I had seen up to that point, this didn't seem so weird anymore.

"We better find a place for her to be safe first." Rockman suggested, referring to the still unconscious Snow White.

We left the room, headed from one corridor into another, until Rockman found a room. He pressed a button, which opened the door. Inside, there were boxes, pieces of armor, and staffs. The same sort of armor as that gray man from earlier was wearing, and the same sort of staff as he was carrying.

"This looks promising." Rockman said, "Lay her down on one of these boxes."

No argument there, I thought to myself.

"Do you really think I'm that heavy?" that voice spoke again.

I froze at that. The voice I heard replied exactly to what I was thinking, and in this case was asking me whether she was that heavy. But how should I know, since I wasn't carrying whoever that voice belonged to. Unless...

"Is something wrong?" Rockman noticed my hesitation.

I shook my head, and laid her down on one of the boxes.

"Good." he said, "If anyone comes here, you should be able to defend her with these staffs."

I nodded in agreement, after which Rockman left the room and shut the door behind him.

With him gone, I started trying to figure out what was happening. I knew that Snow White was unconscious because she was tapping into the mind-reading machine. Since she was connected to it, it meant she could hear every organic person's thoughts, and clearly even send thoughts into their heads, forcing them to change sides. If she can do that, then that had to mean she was using that machine to communicate with me telepathically. Which would explain why I kept hearing her voice.

"You are right about almost everything." Snow White's voice told me.

I was relieved to know for sure what was happening, but still puzzled about what she meant. I was right about "almost" everything?

"I'm not forcing them to do anything." she said, "They are all controlled by something else. I am merely blocking that which controls them."

It surprised me to hear that she even knew what "to block something" meant, but since we were telepathically connected, she would think in terms that she's familiar with, send the signal to my brains, and my brains would interpret her choice of words into terms that I would understand.

"You're very smart for someone who doesn't talk much." she complimented me.

I snickered at that. I was still trying to process most of what was happening around me. And even if I had already fully processed everything, there was no point in me saying anything now, since she can hear what I was thinking. But just as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I was reminded of where we were, and why we were there, and I began to wonder how Rockman and Tuxedo Kamen were doing.

"I can't tell you what Rockman is doing." Snow White told me, "But I can show you what's going on with Tuxedo Kamen."

In spite of everything, I could barely believe what she was saying.

"Sit down, close your eyes, and let me do the rest."

I tried looking for a comfortable spot to sit on, leaned my back against the wall behind me and closed my eyes.

Even with my eyes closed, I saw myself wearing white gloves, holding a walking stick, and beating up what looked like a man with gray skin and a pelican's nose. My hand punched its head (even though I wasn't telling my hand to), and the head fell off, revealing it was a robot I was fighting against. It took me a while before I figured out I wasn't really doing anything. The walking stick I was holding belonged to Tuxedo Kamen, which meant that I was seeing this through his eyes. And through his eyes, I didn't see that gray man or that skullman from before. What I did see was what I recognized to be that corridor from before. The one where I was kept prisoner. Through his eyes, I saw how the green-skinned guard had beaten up one of those red-eye robots. I wondered if I could switch from Tuxedo Kamen's point of view to this green-skinned person. The thought barely crossed my mind, and suddenly I was seeing it through his eyes. From there, I could see Tuxedo Kamen approaching him.

"Take the prisoners to the cargo bay. Hurry."

The green-skinned man nodded. He turned to enter the room, pressed a few buttons, and the prisoners were released from their bonds. Among them, I recognized some of my classmates. The green-skinned man shook them up, waking them one by one. Good, I thought to myself, as this meant my classmates will be fine.

I switched back to Tuxedo Kamen, who ran up to meet with the gray man and the skullman, who were accompanied by another guy, who was dressed in casual clothing. Finally, somebody that seemed normal to me.

"Who is this?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.

"Hi, I'm Quinn Mallory." the man in question answered.

"You're Quinn Mallory?" Tuxedo Kamen must have thought he would look a bit more spectacular than this.

"You're making these people friendly?"

I could hear Tuxedo Kamen's confusion. I switched to Quinn's point of view, so to see what went through his mind. He was still grasping the situation himself. He had been kept prisoner by these people for so long, and so when the gray man and the skullman freed him, he thought it was a trap at first. Until he saw the people fighting either against one common enemy, or against each other.

"We thought he may still be useful for you." the skullman said, "If your blue android activates a ship, somebody will notice, and might try to disable inter-world traveling."

"You can help us with that?" Tuxedo Kamen asked.

"I'll have to find my timer first." Quinn answered.

"Timer?"

"It's what I used to travel with." he explained, "But they took it from me, and I don't know where it is now."

"Personal effects are kept in a storage locker somewhere." the gray man explained.

"You know where that is?" Quinn asked him.

"I do."

"Alright, you take him there." Tuxedo Kamen told him, then turned to the skullman, "You and I better free more prisoners."

The two of them nodded, and they split up.


	7. Chapter 7

Quinn and the gray man ran to the aforementioned storage locker. On their way, they came across one Reaver. Curious, I switched from Quinn's perspective to the Reaver's. What I saw and heard then was... there was nothing but violence in his head. It was like he couldn't think of nice things at all. That would explain why the mind-reading machine didn't work on him, because nothing Snow White, or anybody could say or do could make him less violent. From his perspective, I saw the gray man raise his staff and shot him in the face. There are no words to describe what that felt like. Not only did it all turn black for the Reaver, but... since I was inside his head, I could feel the sensation that went through him as he died, and how that sensation just... stopped. How exactly do you describe being dead and knowing it?

"Don't worry, it didn't happen to you." Snow White's voice told me.

She may be right, but that didn't make living through death like this any easier.

"Don't you want to know what happens to your friends?" she asked me.

I wasn't sure if "friends" was the right way to describe them, but then again they did save my life, so I guess I should at least consider them something of the sorts. I switched to the nearest living thing I could find. When I did, I had no idea what I had switched to. I saw what looked like a black and red world, where there were many kinds of things that reminded me of beef. I had no idea what this was, so I tried searching for something else. Suddenly, I could see something. I didn't know through whose eyes I was looking, but the appearance of a staff, and the sight of Quinn Mallory talking directly at me... excuse me, directly at the person through whom I was watching all this, I knew I was inside the gray man.

"What are those things?" Quinn asked.

"We're not sure what they are." the gray man said, "We only know they're called Reavers."

It was odd, but as he said "we", the word "Jaffa" came to his mind. From that, I drew the conclusion that he was a Jaffa. I had no idea what to think of that. Isn't Jaffa a sort of cake?

"Reavers..." Quinn repeated what the gray man... or rather the Jaffa said, "Well, at least the enemy has a name."

They continued on their search. While that was happening, I wanted to know how Tuxedo Kamen was doing, so I switched to his perspective. He lead quite a few people through a door, when suddenly somebody shouted something, followed by people rushing back the way they came. Tuxedo Kamen looked, and saw... a huge fire, spreading quickly through the corridor, forcing that skullman to shut the door.

"What are you doing?" he punched the skullman for doing that.

Since he was wearing a helmet, he barely felt the punch, so he could reply: "Because if I didn't, we'd all be dead."

"What about those people still there!?"

"It was too late for them!" he says, "Don't you understand? I had to make a judgment call here!"

"A judgment call..." Tuxedo Kamen didn't believe him, "Coming from one of my abductors..."

"Excuse me..." one of the other prisoners came in between them, "Is there another way out?"

The skullman was thinking that through: "There are several ways to the hangar bay, but I can't know if..."

A loud yell came from across the corridor. This was immediately followed by several more yells, Tuxedo Kamen looked to see what was going on, but several more people started panicking, blocking his view. I switched from Tuxedo Kamen's point of view to someone else's... again... and again... until I finally found the source of their distress. It was a group of what looked like golden faced robots with rods, acting very much like monkeys. They were hitting, stabbing,... pretty much forcing their way through the escaping prisoners. And being inside the heads of many of these people... I feel what goes through them every time someone's killed. Somehow, Tuxedo Kamen managed to jump in front of these people, and fought back against these things, along with the skullman. He seemed to have no problem with them... or so I thought, until I switched back to his point of view, and saw what was really happening. These... ape-bots stepped away, to make room for one of those men in metallic suits, with that light going from side to side.

"Source of disturbance found." it spoke, just before it opened fire. The skullman tried to stop him, but in pushing the gun, the metallic man hit the other guy. The room seemed to spin, while Tuxedo Kamen's hands went up in the air. The room stopped spinning until only the ceiling was in his sight, and the room went dark. Unable to believe what I just saw, I switched to another person, and he (or she?) confirmed what I didn't want to be true. The man who saved me, who introduced me to the one that's getting us off this base... shot in the chest.

"There's nothing you could have done." Snow White tells me.

How can she possibly remain so calm? He saved her from that cell too. Shouldn't she be even a bit taken by the fact that her hero died.

"I am." she replied to my thoughts, "But he died, so that we can live. Give up now, and his death would be vain."

I tried to keep that in mind, while I switched back to Quinn and the Jaffa.

They had arrived at the room they were searching for. There, they found all sorts of things. Somebody's old tape-player, somebody's back-pack,... and many things I don't recognize.

"What are we looking for?" the Jaffa asked.

"It's a small gray box, with red number, counting down." Quinn explained, and they started looking.

During their search, Quinn stumbled upon a dagger. He thought nothing of it, but I could feel recognition, coming from Snow White.

"Maybe you should pick that up." she seemed to whisper in his head, "A knife is better than having no weapon."

Quinn seemed agree with that sort of reasoning, so he picked it up and put it in his pocket. Did Snow White just persuade him into picking up her dagger?

"Yes. That's my dagger." she answered, "I thought that since he's here, he might as well pick it up for me."

"Is this it?" the Jaffa found something, so Quinn looked.

"Yes, that's it." he ran to pick it up, and looked at the timer.

"What do those numbers mean?" the Jaffa asked.

"They mean we've got less than an hour before a new portal can open."

"And you invented this?" the Jaffa looked very surprised.

"Never mind that." Quinn replied, "You said there was a way off this station?"

"Indeed." the Jaffa pointed back to the door.

They both ran back to the door, but as soon as they heard guns being fired, they shut it.

"Is there another way?"

As a response, the Jaffa raised his staff, shot the wall at the end of the room, creating a hole for them to escape through.


	8. Chapter 8

Quinn and the Jaffa ran as fast they could, shooting their way through some of the corridors,... until they arrived at the nearest way to the hangar bay. There, they met with several more Reavers. Said Reavers did not see them, but from what I could see, they were fighting a heavy battle with other people (that weren't visible from where Quinn or the Jaffa stood).

"Is there another way there?"

"There is." the Jaffa replied, "But it's harder, even without guards."

"It'll have to do." Quinn said, "Take me there."

This time, they ran up a couple of stairs, to reach what looks like a small control room. There, there was a window, looking over the hangar bay, which the Jaffa shot, shattering it to pieces.

"What am I supposed to do? Jump down there?"

"It's the only way out now."

Quinn knew that the Jaffa was right, but jumping that deep down, even the Jaffa must realize the risk of this. But instead, he started to climb out of the window. Not knowing what he was doing, Quinn looked at first. He saw how the Jaffa first let himself hang from the window sill, then dropped himself. The Jaffa landed on his own two feet, without any recoil or anything. Making it look so easy.

"How... how did you do that?"

"I'm a Jaffa." he explained, "My body can endure more than yours. Now do as I have done, I'll catch you."

Quinn had second thoughts about that, but as soon as he heard someone (or something?) knocking on the door, he hesitated no longer. He stepped up onto the window sill, about ready to hang himself down from it. But then the door opened instantly, with Reavers bursting through. Realizing they won't wait until he was hanging down from the sill, Quinn saw no other option but to jump. Which he did.

"No! Not like that!" the Jaffa shouted at him.

Through the Jaffa's perspective, I could see Quinn falling down, swinging all his limbs in all directions, making the Jaffa uncertain of how to catch him. As soon as Quinn's body was very close to the Jaffa, everything turned black. Afraid of living through another death, I switched back to Quinn's head. He got up from the Jaffa, who seemed be down on the ground. Whether he was crushed by Quinn, or merely knocked out, it wasn't clear to him. But when he heard the Reavers were coming, he decided he didn't have time to check his pulse. He started running away, as fast as he could, putting as much distance between him and the Reavers as humanly possible. Even the sudden shot of pain he felt in his neck had to be ignored for the time being.

"Over here!" he heard a mechanical voice shout at him. A voice I recognized too well.

Quinn looked to where the voice came from, and saw the blue android Rockman, standing inside that circle, underneath the pyramid. He didn't know if he could be trusted, but between him and the Reavers, Quinn knew his options were limited. So he ran toward him.

"Are there more coming?" Rockman asked.

This surprised Quinn: "You mean I'm the first here?"

Rockman looked saddened by this. But he clearly didn't want that to stop him. Rockman held up his right arm, which carried some kind of wrist-device, where he pressed a button, allowing those rings to shoot up from the ground again, transporting the two inside the pyramid.

"What... was that?" Quinn asked.

"Never mind that." Rockman said, as he ran from the transporter room, and Quinn followed.

Both of them arrived at what looked like the pyramid's control room. There, Rockman pressed a few button, and through Quinn's eyes, I saw him looking out through the... windshield (I guessed), where I saw the pyramid lifting off the ground, and moving toward an opening, leading us into outer space. In Quinn's mind that didn't make sense. Of there was a hole in the space station, allowing for ships to fly through, shouldn't there be some kind of vacuum? Before he could think of answer, two Reavers had appeared in front of the windshield. They were shouting and screaming, waving their weapons, but as soon as the pyramid entered space, they stopped shouting and screaming. They stopped moving altogether.

"What's going on?" Quinn asked.

"It would take too long to explain." Rockman said.

With this, he kept... waving his hands over the lights (which seem to somehow control the ship), until the pyramid was a few miles away from the space station. From that distance, we could finally see where we've been kept all this time. It was shaped like a planet, white-ish gray, and... from where we were, it looked so peaceful, ironically enough.

"We made it through." Quinn sighed of relief.

"Unfortunately not all of us." Rockman said, after which he started running away.

"Where are you going?" Quinn asked.

"There are two more on this ship that escaped with us, I want to check up on them." he answered.

"Two more..." Snow White whispered into Quinn's head, "... who are unarmed and can't defend themselves. But you have a weapon they can use, don't you?"

"Wait... take this with you." Quinn ran to give him Snow White's dagger.

Rockman looked at him curiously: "Why?"

"You've seen those Reavers." he explained, "If they made it onto the ship, what's to stop them from making it inside the ship?"

Rockman was skeptical, but took the dagger with him anyway: "Thank you, I will let them have this."

With this, he left Quinn alone.


	9. Chapter 9

Knowing that Rockman was on his way to see me, I opened my eyes again. Moments later, he entered the storage room.

"Good news, we just left the space station."

I was about to tell him I already knew that, but he continued before I could: "Bad news, we are the only survivors."

No kidding. But Rockman wasn't done: "The three of us, and one more man. He even told me to give this to you."

He gave me the dagger that Quinn gave him. Snow White's dagger.

"Generous as it may be, it won't do you any good." he said, "Can you use any of the weapons here?"

I picked up one of the staff-weapons that I found, but Rockman stopped me: "Too heavy for you."

He opened on of the boxes, takes something out and gives it to me: "Here, this should do."

He gave me what looked like a hand-gun. Though it had two buttons, and I wasn't sure which button did what.

"Press this button..." Rockman pointed, "... to activate it, and press the other to shoot. Shoot once, it'll cause pain, possibly paralysis. Shoot twice, and they die."

I pressed one of the buttons, and got spooked when it... expanded, and made what sounded like a threatening roar. I pressed that button again, and it regained its original form.

"Are these the only survivors?" Quinn suddenly popped into the room.

"Yes." Rockman replied.

"What's wrong with her?" Quinn pointed at Snow White.

"It would take too long to explain." Rockman said, "I have other things to do."

"What other things?" Quinn wondered.

"They are fighting a battle inside that space station." Rockman explained, "One side are people who want to re-program, brainwash, or assimilate us. The other are a group of feral people. Whichever side wins, it won't be beneficial for us."

"So what do you plan to do?" Quinn asked.

"There is one very easy way to destroy the base." Rockman said, "And I intend on doing exactly that."

Without another word, Rockman ran out of the room. Quinn tried to follow him, but Rockman was too fast for him. Quinn gave up quite fast, and ran back to me and Snow White.

"He just... disappeared around the corner." he said, "How did he do that?"

He scratched his head thinking about it. Though as he scratched his head, he lowered his hand to his neck, as if he was still suffering from that pain he felt there earlier. Quinn noticed me looking at him scratching his neck.

"It's nothing." he said, "Think I wrenched my neck when I..."

He couldn't finish his sentence, and having witnessed the event wherein he wrenched his neck, I don't think he had to say any more.

"I better see what that blue guy is up to." he left the room, and I shut the door behind him.

"I don't know what Rockman is up to." Snow White's voice said in my head, "Hopefully, we'll find out soon."

I took that as an invitation of hers for me to sit down again, and see what was going on elsewhere. So I put Snow White's dagger into her hands, and took my seat again.

Through Quinn's eyes, I saw him running back to the ship's bridge, and looking outside. There, we saw a smaller vessel leave from a hangar somewhere in our own ship, and head toward the space station. As it left, Quinn looked at his timer. Still fifteen minutes left. Quinn knew that it was more than enough to return to the storage room, and hopefully enough room for Rockman to do what he had to do. Being inside his head, I found out that Quinn was thinking exactly what I was thinking, that that smaller vessel we saw was controlled by Rockman. It made me wonder whether there were others at the base who could see him coming.

"Only one way to find out." Snow White said.

We switched to a point of view of the individual on the station that was nearest to us. Oddly, that individual seemed to be flying in space. There were several more, we sensed, so we switched to another one. There was another individual on the left of the first one. And another to the right. We tried looking inside the head of someone further and... what we saw made no sense. We saw that we were inside the heads of people inside spaceships, and from this one perspective, we saw three more ships in front of us. Though these ships looked more like fighter-jets. But the strangest part was that we didn't see a control console, or the hands controlling the machine, as if the mind we were in was the machine. But how was that possible? The mind-reading machine only works on organic people, and yet here we were inside the heads of fighter-jets. Unless... Is this what Rockman meant with assimilating people? Turning them into machines? Was this the fate that awaited me? Was this what Tuxedo Kamen saved me from? Tried to save everyone else from, but failed?

"Wait, maybe we can use this." Snow White said.

From these people's eyes, we could see that smaller vessel arrive. And as I thought, Rockman was in the cockpit. But as he flew over the station, other fighter-jets started leaving the hangar-bay.

"That little blue man you just saw could use your help." Snow White whispered into these... people-jet.

And as she suggested, these jets started firing at the enemy fighters, while two of them provided cover-fire for Rockman. Knowing him, he probably already knew what the friendlier jets were, and wouldn't be entirely surprised why they'd help him. After a lot of zigzagging and shooting through these fighters, Rockman finally managed to arrive at a hole in the space station's surface, where he fired a few shots. With that done, he raised his vessel up to fly away. I thought to myself that this was great, Rockman succeeded. And as I was about to jump in joy... sparks erupted from one of his wings. It quickly spread over his entire vehicle, until it exploded. That was another man who saved our lives. And he died. Soon enough, there was another explosion, from inside the space station, and soon, all turned black. Instinctively, I tried switching back to other perspectives, but there was nothing there.

"Do not worry." I heard Snow White's voice talk, but... this time, it wasn't inside my head. I opened my eyes, and saw her looking back at me, smiling.

"The enemy lair is destroyed." she explained, "So is the machine. We can't see what others are seeing anymore."

That explained that, but why was she so happy? Lots of people have died.

"Many may have died saving us." she told me, "But they will be remembered."

Lots of good that would do us, I thought to myself, as I looked away from her.

"Look at me." she told me.

I did exactly that. Just looking at the pretty face of hers, it was enough to make me forget all my troubles. For a short while.

"They died so that you may live." she said.

Me? What makes me so special?

"I've looked inside your head." she said, "There is something about you. Something..."

She didn't finish her sentence, as the door to the storage room opened. There stood Quinn.

"Hello." Snow White said to him.

As a reply, he picked up one of the staff-weapons and activated it. Snow White began asking him what he was doing, but got interrupted when his eyes started glowing.

"You are the one who was inside our heads, were you not?" he spoke with a distorted voice, almost like possessed by a demon.

Immediately, Snow White took a defensive position, holding up her dagger, and standing in front of me, like she was shielding me.

Quinn (or whoever he was) laughed: "You just brought a knife into a gun-fight.

Gun... I was reminded that I had a weapon of my own. As fast as I could, I activated my own gun, raised it and fired at Quinn. A lightning-bolt shot from the gun and hit him. As it hit him... I needed a moment to fully comprehend what happened. It was either too fast, or I didn't want it to be true. Shooting Quinn caused him to fire his own weapon. And while I didn't actually see it hit anything, the fact that Snow White was lying at my feet, her belly scorched, and bleeding... it gave a very good idea where the blast went. Too good an idea. She laid at my feet, squirming in pain, while I stood there, at a loss to do anything. Quinn, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do. He fought against the pain I caused him, and tried standing up again. Immediately, I fired my gun at him again. With this, he stopped moving altogether, and fell down, lifeless. Frightened at what I had in my hands, I threw it away, and turned all my attention to Snow White. She looked at me, with those marvelous eyes of hers, as if she wasn't at all angry at what I caused to happen. She raised her hand, reaching for mine. I knelt down to hold her hand, but she only wanted me to hold it open for her, so she could give me her dagger.

"Take this..." she said, with grave difficulty, "... for your... protection... and... to re... remember me by."

That's when all life left her body. I can still see those eyes of hers staring at me. Can you even begin to imagine eyes like hers, soft and loving, and yet so devoid of life at the same time? It's a sight nobody should ever have to witness. So lost was I in this, the very next sound I heard spooked me. Wanting it to stop, I looked around for its source. It seemed to come from Quinn. I searched his body, and found only his timer. It was getting closer to zero. I didn't know what to do with it, but I wanted its noise to stop. So I pressed the only button this machine had. Had happened next was something I didn't expect at all. Something shot itself from the device, and formed a sort of circle in front of me. The same sort of circle that was used to kidnap me and my classmates... whom I hadn't thought of until now. They too were on that station, so they too had died. I was feeling worse and worse every second. I couldn't stay there much longer. I jumped into that circle, not caring where it would take, if it would take me anywhere at all.

**THE END?**


End file.
